Squidward Tentacles
|media= *SpongeBob SquarePants *SpongeBob Comics |creator=Stephen Hillenburg |voice_actor=Rodger Bumpass |full_name=Squidward J. Q. Tentacles |nickname=Squidward |age= |sex=Male |species=octopus |occupation=Cashier |alliance=Neutral |home=Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean |family= |pets= *Snellie the Snail *Squidward's scallop *Rocky *Pete ("Sentimental Sponge") |friends=SpongeBob SquarePants, Sandy Cheeks, Squidward, Mr. Crabs. |enemies= |likes= |dislikes= |powers= |weapons= |series=SpongeBob SquarePants }} Squidward Q. Tentacles is a fictional character in the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Squidward was created and designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. He first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode "Help Wanted" on May 1, 1999. Although his name has the word "squid" in it, Squidward is an anthropomorphic octopus.a He lives in a moai between SpongeBob SquarePants' and Patrick Star's houses. The character is portrayed as ill-tempered and pretentious, and he dislikes his two neighbors' constant noisy behavior. However, the pair are unaware of Squidward's antipathy towards them and see him as a friend. Squidward works as a cashier at the Krusty Krab restaurant, a job that he is apathetic towards. The character's critical reception from professionals and fans has been positive. Squidward has appeared in many SpongeBob SquarePants publications, toys, and other merchandise. He appears in the 2004 full-length feature film The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and its sequel, which was released in 2015. Appearance Squidward is depicted as a bitter and arrogant turquoise octopus. He lives in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom in a moai situated between SpongeBob SquarePants' pineapple house and Patrick Star's rock. Squidward detests his neighbors for their perpetual laughter and boisterous behavior, though SpongeBob and Patrick are oblivious to Squidward's animosity towards them and regard him as a friend. Squidward lives in a constant state of self-pity and misery; he is unhappy with his humdrum lifestyle and yearns for celebrity status, wealth, hair, and a glamorous and distinguished career as a musician or painter with a passion for art and playing the clarinet. However, he is left to endure the lowly status as a fast-food cashier at the Krusty Krab restaurant. Squidward resents his job and is irritated by his greedy employer Mr. Krabs and by having his own resented neighbor SpongeBob as a colleague. Personality Squidward is rude, snobby, grumpy, miserable, sarcastic, cynical and sometimes sadistic. He views the world in such a negative light that he is rarely seen greeting anyone with a smile. He loathes his job at the Krusty Krab and is often seen sleeping or reading on the job. In spite of his temper, he is still one of the most intelligent and educated characters. He has a sarcastic attitude and sees others as uncivilized morons, while failing to accept his own personal shortcomings. Squidward sees himself as misunderstood and unappreciated, blaming society for his failures. Really happy Squidward He is annoyingly pretentious in his pursuit of fame and is either unwilling or unable to spot talent and creativity, even belittling it. He lauds "cultivated taste" and accepted standards. In the episode "Artist Unknown," he insists that his pupil SpongeBob "show his method," even when it is painfully clear that SpongeBob has artistic genius. Furthermore, Squidward takes credit for creating the David statue when SpongeBob is the actual creator. His motive was to impress the art appraiser. In the episode "Bubblestand," he belittles SpongeBob's bubble blowing. Squidward is also jealous of those who are more artistic than he is, for example, Nat Peterson, Patrick Star,22 Mr. Krabs, Squilliam Fancyson, and even the puppet Big Nose. In "Slimy Dancing," Squidward cheats during the dance show by hiding in SpongeBob's body and using the latter's physical identity and talents to win the trophy. He attempts to steal the dance trophy after being criticized by the judges, only to be thrown out by the security. In "Professor Squidward," Squidward impersonates Squilliam Fancyson while exercising his power as a music teacher, preceding his arrest by the police. In "Sold!," after knowing that SpongeBob and Patrick think Nick Fishkins has bought their homes. Squidward lies that a 14-member family has moved into SpongeBob's pineapple and an 8-member rock band with several instruments has moved into Patrick's rock. When SpongeBob and Patrick come to their old houses, he puts on outfits to match the characters that he made up. Squidward is generally portrayed as an overall failure. His musical skills with the clarinet are generally portrayed as sub-par, from mediocre to excruciatingly horrible. In "Sweet and Sour Squid," Squidward's disastrous clarinet playing creates a mass noise disturbance throughout town, prompting the authorities' arrival. However, there have been numerous exceptions - such as in "Bubblestand" and "Hello Bikini Bottom!" - where he plays nicely. At the end of "Christmas Who?," he manages to play great with the wooden clarinet SpongeBob carved for him. In "That's No Lady," he manages to play a nice tune to woo "Patricia." In addition, in "Best Day Ever," he even has a concert where he plays beautifully and receives thunderous applause from the audience. SpongeBob was even on the VIP list for it. It seems that he is actually capable of playing the clarinet very well by providing the full effort. He plays well enough in "Hello Bikini Bottom!" for a musical manager to offer him and SpongeBob a job. He also - if the player plays well - plays well in the Rock Bottom mini-game in Lights, Camera, Pants!, along with Beats Me. He is also first-chair in the Bikini Bottom Orchestra.23 He often lets this success go to his head. In "Skill Crane," Squidward's final success in winning from the toy claw machine goes to his head and influences him to use a construction crane; his out-of-control usage of said crane leads to the demolition of the future site of a mall, and eventually the Krusty Krab. In "Snowball Effect" After pelting SpongeBob and Patrick with snowballs, he takes the snowball fight too far and builds a massive Fort and throws a bunch of snowballs, believing he was dominating the snowball fight. His overall artistic style is shown to be abstract and overly sophisticated, and his works are commonly panned by his audiences. His critical failure is shown to be more due to his bad taste, rather than a genuine lack of talent. The majority of his art centers on himself, apparently holding his very being to be an artistic wonder. In the episode "One Krabs Trash," Squidward is shown bringing flowers to a gravestone reading "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams." Despite his lack of success, Squidward is tireless in his pursuit of artistic achievement. In "Dunces and Dragons," Squidly, Squidward's medieval ancestor, vowed that if he could not learn to play the clarinet correctly, his seventh great-grandson would be cursed tenfold. In "Squilliam Returns," Squilliam mentions that Squidward was voted "Most Likely to Suck Eggs" in high school. Squidward is well-educated and knows his history. He is intelligent and has a lot of worldly knowledge, especially compared to those of SpongeBob and Patrick. Squidward is also a skilled driver, as he manages to drive virtually everything, from a traditional bike, a boat, car, and even a tractor. Squidward is a good-natured and caring person; he just does not like to get too involved in things. Squidward sleeping at work. When he is at the Krusty Krab, he is a lazy, sloppy employee who has an intense dislike of the restaurant and its management, which is best exemplified in the "Krusty Krab Training Video." He is considered "inattentive, impatient," with "a glazed look in the eye." In episodes where Squidward is put behind the grill whenever SpongeBob is missing, he has shown himself to be an incompetent fry cook, often burning the food instead of cooking it, which affects the health of its consumers. This is shown in "Pickles," "Hooky," and "SpongeBob LongPants." In "Chum Fricassee," it is revealed by Grandma Tentacles that Squidward undercooked her fricassee, thus poisoning the customers. In "Accidents Will Happen," he fakes his injury and lies to Mr. Krabs for the sole purpose of seeking sympathy and having an excuse to not work. He does this again in "Squiditis," where he lies to Mr. Krabs about having the eponymous disease to have a day off. In the episode "Squid on Strike," he organizes a worker's strike at the Krusty Krab. He even causes the destruction of the Krusty Krab, although indirectly and accidentally. However, despite his hatred for his job and the constant abuse and misfortune from having it, he very rarely ever quits and never considers looking for better employment. He puts up with it out of pure laziness and stubborn pride out of the fact that he expects to let benefits come to him rather than actually trying, such as in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" and "New Leaf" when Mr. Krabs threatens to fire him and Squidward lets this threaten him to go along with what he's getting dragged into against his will. It is revealed in a flashback of "The Original Fry Cook" that he insists on remaining at the Krusty Krab until his clarinet career pays off, regardless of if it never does. Other examples include "Can You Spare a Dime?," in which he quits the Krusty Krab and becomes homeless due to not finding a new job. After being taken in by SpongeBob, Squidward becomes a pushy mooch and consistently ignores by choice to SpongeBob's hints for him to at least attempt to look for a new job. In "Banned in Bikini Bottom," after the Krusty Krab is closed down, rather than trying to search for himself a new job, he waits around with SpongeBob watching Mr. Krabs wallow in depression. In "Goodbye, Krabby Patty," after getting officially fired from the Krusty Krab, Squidward takes pettiness to this, but sees this as an opportunity to follow his dreams, only to find out that he needs better experience than 17 years as a cashier. Yet rather than trying to actually search for a better job, he begs for SpongeBob help him get employed at the Krusty Krab Museum. The most recent example is "The Check-Up" when a nurse threatens to have the Krusty Krab permanently closed, Squidward ends up deciding to help SpongeBob rather than ditching to let him do it himself, stating that if the Krusty Krab is closed down, he would "have to get a real job." As it all turns out, one of the reasons why Squidward is often arrogant and bad-tempered, especially the fact that he's rude and hateful to most people, is having to put up with SpongeBob and Patrick's boisterous and irritating behaviors, which sometimes leads him to make plans to get him to stop, although sometimes, either as a result of his own arrogance or carelessness, his plans backfire on him. This is shown in "Jellyfishing" where Squidward unleashes a jellyfish in a jar with the intent to make it sting SpongeBob and Patrick, in retaliation for making him get stung by the Queen Jellyfish. In "Fools in April," Squidward pulls a very cruel and harmful prank on SpongeBob that physically assaults him while under the manipulation of a rope tied to him. In "Suction Cup Symphony," Squidward kicks SpongeBob and Patrick out of his window so hard to the point of fracturing the latter's buttock bones. In "Dying for Pie," Squidward buys an explosive pie to give to SpongeBob for Employee Brotherhood Day, oblivious to the fact that it is infused with a bomb; SpongeBob allegedly consumes it, only to reveal toward the ending that he had it in his pocket the whole time to share with Squidward. Although Squidward tried to make the last hours of SpongeBob's life meaningful, he expresses anger upon discovering that SpongeBob never actually ate the pie. In "The Lost Mattress," Squidward tries to get SpongeBob and Patrick eaten by the guard worm at the dump by having them trespass the fence while dressed up in steak suits. In "The Curse of Bikini Bottom," Squidward lends his lawn mower to SpongeBob and Patrick out of hope that they injure themselves with it. In "Sportz?," he creates a malicious sports game for them to play in an attempt to harm them. In "Scavenger Pants," Squidward makes up a really difficult scavenger hunt in hopes of getting SpongeBob and Patrick harmed. Despite his grumpy nature, Squidward does have a caring heart deep down, and when he realizes his plans have caused either harm or emotional pain to those he ridiculed, he is quick to realize the error of his ways and make up for it while he can. Occasionally, such as in "Krab Borg," Squidward is seen teaming up with SpongeBob, or even caring about him. Character Creation Stephen Hillenburg first became fascinated with the ocean and began developing his artistic abilities as a child. During college, he majored in marine biology and minored in art. After graduating in 1984, he joined the Ocean Institute, an ocean education organization, where he had the idea to create a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which led to the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants. In 1987, Hillenburg left the Institute to pursue a career in animation. .]] Several years after studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts, Hillenburg met Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, at an animation festival. Murray offered Hillenburg a job as a director of the series. "Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ Martin Olson, one of the writers for Rocko's Modern Life, read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. At that point, Hillenburg had not considered creating his own series, but soon realized that this was his chance. Shortly after production on Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants. Hillenburg used some character designs from his comic book. He designed "SpongeBob's grumpy next door neighbor" as an octopus because he liked the species' large head; octopuses, he said, "have such a large bulbous head, and Squidward thinks he's an intellectual, so of course he's gonna have a large bulbous head."Hillenburg, Stephen. (March 1, 2005). The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (The Case of the Sponge "Bob") (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment/Nickelodeon. Hillenburg explained that Squidward is normally drawn with six limbs because "it was really just simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight". Squidward is only shown with a full set of eight legs in two episodes: the live-action sequence in "Pressure" from season two, and briefly in "Sold!" from season nine. Hillenburg named the character Squidward after the squid, which is closely related to the octopus and has ten limbs. In the words of Squidward's voice actor Rodger Bumpass, the name Octoward "just didn't work".Bumpass, Rodger. (March 1, 2005). The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment/Nickelodeon. Of Squidward's design, show writer and storyboard artist Vincent Waller said in 2010: Squidward is hard to draw — he has a very odd-shaped head. Fortunately, his emotions are pretty even, but to get a whole lot of big emoting out of him is a challenge. His nose splits everything in half, so it's always like, 'OK, how am I going to work this and still make it read?' Hillenburg thought of making jokes with Squidward ejecting ink but retired it because, according to him, "it always looks like he's pooping his pants". The sound of Squidward's footsteps, which evokes that of suction cups pulling on the ground, is produced by rubbing hot water bottles. The footsteps, and those of the rest of the main characters, are recorded by the show's foley crew. Sound designer Jeff Hutchins said that footstep sounds "help tell which character it is and what surface they're stepping on". Bumpass inspired the idea of having Squidward ride a recumbent bicycle; Bumpass owns one of these bicycles, which he rides around Burbank, California. Bumpass described it as his "little inside joke". References External Links *Squidward on SpongeBob wikia *Squidward on Nickelodeon wikia Category:Spongebob characters Category:Nicktoons Unite! series characters